Real Food. Real Talk. Real Good.

This post is sponsored by the lovely people at Crunchmaster. All opinions, and cheese plate-ery advice is my own! This Valentine’s Day I’ve decided to do something a little different. Instead of the intense steak and lobster-fest my husband and I usually spring for, I’m keeping things simple by making us a big ol’ cheese board with all the fixings. It’s the ultimate in snack-dinner dining. You guys know about snack-dinner, right? It happens when it’s late, and you’re tired, and you end up eating a bowl of popcorn and an apple for dinner. Or, maybe you throw all caution to the wind and hunker down to eat a hunk of salami over the sink while gently sobbing about your life choices? We’ve all been there. This is the MUCH less sad version of that. This is fancy snack dinner. This is something to look forward to. This, my friends, is romantic.

So, I hear the Super Bowl is going to be happening on Sunday. I’m going to be honest with you and let you know that I have no idea who is playing, and very little understanding of Football itself other than the obvious “CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN’T LOSE!”–You know, those Friday Night Lights feels. Texas Forever. Coach Taylor. Jason Street. Riggins. QB ONE! Ok, those aren’t really sentences, but rather just me blurting out names. Cool. Cool, cool. […]

What do you say we sneak in one more late summer recipe to close out the season? You know, just a bookend before the PUMPKINPOCALYPSE explodes in full swing and our internet eyeballs feel the harsh sting of cinnamon and cloves on everything. I’m totally not mad at fall, you guys. In fact, I welcome the cooler weather and the shift in energy that comes with autumn. I like to watch the leaves turn. I get excited when the first rain hits and the dusty golden hills get their first drink of water. I like the feeling of baking my fist pie. I enjoy taking a fork to that pie while watching Netflix and asking my husband to light the first fire of the season. All of these things feel cozy. Give me a sweater and some thick socks and a thermos full of hot toddy. I’m in. […]

Who’s in the mood for a little storytelling? I’m going to give you the origin story of how I learned to make the worlds easiest guacamole. But, mostly this is an in memoriam to the kitchens of college past.

When I went off to college I was armed with an arsenal of low cut tops, chunky platform flip-flops and a handful of recipes that I had learned from my mother. The first year of school was spent in a crowded dorm room with two other girls. The microwave was attached the the refrigerator, creating this for-rent contraption called a “Microfridge”. Like any good Hawaiian girl, I brought along a rice pot. My Filipino roommate moved in with the largest bag of rice I’d ever seen, and a Costco pack of Vienna Sausage stored on the upper tier of our closet, above the coats. These things made up our “kitchen”. Cooking that year didn’t resemble cooking. I ate a lot of frozen burritos, and whatever suspicious “maybe it’s chicken, or is this fish?” they served us in the cafeteria. Our Microfridge only caught on fire three times that year, burning whatever questionable food we were trying to nuke at the time. I suppose this was a regular occurrence in other dorm rooms as well. Sometimes when walking the halls, it would smell like a Chicken Chow Mein electrical fire–wafting the scents of takeout mixed with dangerous university issued appliances from under the doors. I missed being able to cook my own food. I missed having personal space. I missed not falling asleep to the sound of one of my roommates smacking lips with her new boyfriend. […]

Playing around in the kitchen today. Made this #grainfree #glutenfree trashed up version of @brewinghappines ‘s Pumpkin Chia Olive Oil Cake. I’m not mad at it. 👌🏻 @ Novato, California https://t.co/2gyTjYK1gg